Chương 25

The bar was full, and fairly noisy, but it was darker than the outside, and the path was clear. Hammond stepped forward without hesitating and I only followed after I got my bearings. As I looked around I couldn't help but wonder. We were looking for pirates right? Weren't they all right here? The people in the bar looked rough, and dangerous, blasters and weapons, adorned hips and bodies, and it was obvious there was a tension of danger.

Eyes followed not just Hammond, but me as well, and I realized that other than one other, we were definitely the tallest people in the room. The only other gene soldier was in the corner and had very little interest in us, as he was much more focused on the waitress flirting with him. Yet, I couldn't help but know that I wasn't in polite company.

Hammond stopped at the bar, and a moment later, with a flick of his hand creds flowed across the gap between men, I was kinda surprised to be honest, I expected him to ask me for Creds, instead of taking care of it himself. By the time I caught up Hammond was already leaning away from the bar.

"Thanks." He offered and turned around, almost bumping into me.

"C'mon." He told me, a bit gruffly, and I quickly followed once more in his shadow. It felt a bit embarrassing, but at least no one stopped me, or pointed a gun at me. We headed back out into the mass of people and I once more followed the wavebreaker that was Hammond as we headed down the street away from the so-called spaceport. We walked a while, but it was loud, and the press of bodies was difficult to deal with.

I couldn't exactly ask him what he had learned, until he slowed, checked to make sure I was still behind him, and following and stepped into a gate on the left side of the road. The moment we stepped through the press of bodies disappeared, and I could see what we had walked into. I actually felt myself relax. Vehicles of all sorts sat around the lot, and then inside what looked like a warehouse, was the sights and sounds, and smells of mechanics. I breathed in, and the smell hit me.

It wasn't quite the same, but the whole area had that smell of vehicles being worked on. It was incredibly familiar. One I hadn't really experienced in this life. Dirt, oil, and metal all ground together.

"Captain?"

"I'm okay!" I said looking at Hammond as I moved forward to catch up. We both walked farther in, and it didn't take long before a man in a hat meant to keep the sun off his head walked up.

"Looking to buy or repair? Best dirt runners this side of the nebula!" He offered with a faux charm to his tone. Ah, the humble used car salesman, did they ever really change?

"Need a vehicle. Looking to buy." Hammond grumbled, sounding irritated, and almost angry, and the salesman's smile dimmed for a moment. Ah, I almost stepped back myself at his growling voice, but Hammond turned and gave me a more normal nod. So he wasn't actually pissed, just using it to put the salesman on the back foot. I stopped caring at that moment. Instead, I opened my ears to the song all around me. Instantly as I listened, I realized this was just like any used car lot back on old Earth.

These were all crapsacks, repaired just enough to sell them, without worry if they fall apart the moment they were off the lot. The song crooning from the lot as a whole, was a somber miserable sound. It was heartbreaking.

"Captain?" Hammond called out distracting me, and I turned.

"Ah! This is the Captain? I suppose she's the one with the Cred Account then? You can trust old Ed, whatever you're looking for, we have it, and the best prices, and best condition of any place on this side of the Nebula!" he offered, waving his hand around and I just nodded, mostly wanting to ignore him.

"Show me what you have." I demanded and he started trying to sell me something right away.

"This is the Mountain Crawler, made over on Stellar Way, amazing vehicle, tough as a Kenish Warship you have my word on that. I'd not usually let this one go, you understand, she's a real workhorse, but you honest folks look like you need it!" He chattered away, and I wasn't even looking at the vehicle he was talking up. The poor thing looked tough, it sort of reminded me of open top Jeeps, but it was practically weeping. Tough is not the description I would use.

But there had to be something in the lot worth grabbing. I moved away from the salesman let Hammond distract him for a while as I walked. There were tons of different types of vehicles, it was kinda wild to see future cars, running my hand across them as I moved. There were even a few motorcycle's that I was really tempted to grab, but they cried just as much as the others. Then I saw it. A four wheel hauler. It had an open cab, but a good amount of storage space in the back, and more importantly than any of that.

I could hear its song. It was weakened, but not dead. It sang of future travels, how easy it would once more go off to the distant horizon with just a little work. There was a bit scrawled on the window, I ignored the numbers, and instead noticed it wasn't actually running. That was fixable.

"Hammond!" I called out, the two men were still looking at the crap sack the salesman had been trying to sell. To my relief, Hammond walked over instantly, ignoring the salesman's continued pitch until he caught up with me.

"This one?" He asked, as he caught up, but my hands were already popping open the hood, much to the Salesman's discomfort.

"She's non-functional right now." I told him, which had Hammond frown a bit.

"If she isn't working, then we should get something else." I ignored him, as I dug in, the song was guiding me, and it didn't take me more than a few moments to find the issue.

"Crabbit give me a scan here?"

"Yep yep! Scan scan. DooDoooDooo." It sang and I looked up at the way the salesman had backed away at the reveal of the Crabbit.

"We'll take this one." I said and the man's face blossomed.

"Excellent! Excellent! A real fixer upper!"

"It doesn't even work." Hammond grumbled, not just at the salesman, but I nodded at his point.

"Yep, which means it'll be cheap. Isn't that right?" I asked, and the Salesman laughed off my words. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

"We have the best prices on this side of the-""The Nebula, yeah you've used that one a few times. This thing doesn't run. So it'll be cheaper. I'll give you… Ten K."

"The sale price is unfortunately twenty-five."

"That's the price new, and functional. Ten." I cut back, which was just a guess, but fuck it that's how places like this worked. My hands already digging through the engine compartment, the issue had something to do with the battery bank, looks like maybe a processing error? I'd have to check the programming, but I wanted to check the wires first. I pulled my Tab, that had the scans to look it over.

"You shouldn't go over eight for this scrap heap." Hammond cut in, and I looked up.

"Really? Eight then?" I played along, and the Salesman seeing that things weren't going his way cut in.

"I understand the worries of it not currently running, but-""I'll give you the Creds right now, no more arguments." I said instead, and the man hesitated, before his face shifted into a smile.

"Ten with an immediate transfer."

"Ten, and no problems while I check it over." I moved my Tab from where I was looking at the scan, to Creds, and flicked it right at him.

"A pleasure doing business with you!" He immediately confirmed, and I ignored him from there as I continued to dig into the engine. Ah! I see, one of the power cables was corroded, cheap replacement, probably meant to get the vehicle off the lot before failing, only to corrode too fast. Idiots.

"Get me a replacement for this processing." I told my shoulder Crabbit and she chirped.

"Yes! Order on the way!"

"Hammond? Head back to the ship, the Crabbits will give you a part, bring it back okay?" I asked him, and he blinked before nodding slowly, his bulk slowly moving out of my light as I got back to work. Plug this into the Tab, and check the engine programming, yep, someone had tried to crack this thing.

"Sync up, we'll need to fix whatever nonsense this is." I said and soon I was restoring the programming that handled power management. —---"Thanks." I said as I grabbed the part from Hammond on his return, the man just nodded, and ten seconds later I had pulled the corroded head off the cable, replaced it with a good one, and plugged it back in.

"Is that it?"

"Pretty much, someone tried to turn this thing into a hot rod. Up jump the power, but they didn't upgrade the power cabling. Blew the whole assembly. These dimwits, obviously tried to fix it, but they put shitty power lines in to replace the blown ones, and so they failed as well, couldn't even get the power through before the whole thing corroded." Hammond blinked took in my explanation with an actually impressed look, as I stepped out of the engine and moved over to the cab.

With just a flick of my Tab, I started her up. Instantly she came alive. The haulers' song was eager and happy, and I knew she'd handle what we needed.

"Hop in!" I called out and it took a moment for the larger man. He looked like he was going to argue before he sighed and slipped into the passenger seat. Release the brake, level the power, and slide up the accelerator on the side of the odd 'y' stick that was the wheel. She didn't' make a noise, electric engines usually didn't, but she jerked as she broke free from her immobile position, and then we were accelerating out of the crappy used car lot, and off..

I had to basically shift to nothing, as I came out on the street, there was just too much traffic. Going at one mile an hour as I slowly rolled down the street certainly wasn't the exciting drive I had been hoping for. —-- Lifting off was a bit of a chore, as the little slumcity spaceport wasn't exactly well managed, but thankfully the Phantom had the heft, that when I called out over comms I was taking off, all the smaller freighters, and haulers didn't argue. One benefit to being the big kid on the block.

We headed out of the atmosphere, and then around the world for a while, as our actual goal was on another landmass.

"Hmm. Planet. Gross." The Crabbit on navigation grumbled, and I had to quirk my eyebrow because that statement was just full of opinion.

"What makes you say that?"

"Dirty. Heavy. Don't like it." She explained to me a bit clipped.

"Sorry. I've still got a lot on my plate, but some upgrades for all of you is on the list."

"I like upgrades!" Tactical chirped out wiggling in her little indent at the tactical console.

"I want a big laser! Math!"

"That's…" I was going to tell her that it wasn't math, but you know what. A laser was high tech enough in my opinion to count.

"I'll think about it."

"Eeeee!" She squealed, and the others around the bridge whined.

"But I want a laser too!"

"Ooh! I want a rocket! Speed!"

"Math is better!"

"Speed is best!" The two Crabbits got into an argument and I tuned it out as I started adjusting my course. Dropping lower and lower, so I would be harder to spot.

"Get me those scans. We need a road or something flat to drive on leading to the town." I called out, and the Navigation Crabbit who had been arguing about speed turned to her task. A moment later I got an update.

"Flat found!" It took only one glance for me to hold back a snort.

"No, that's a river."

"River? But it's flat!"

"It's water, we can't drive on it."

"Oooh." She went back to it, and not long after I was in fact updated with some different roads, looks like most of them were pretty short, this town, some sort of mining town? Or maybe something else? Either way, it wasn't very large, and it only had one real road leading out of the town, which was perfect.

"Alright, let's try… Here." I said pointing at a location on the sensor map, the road passed through a forest, and I could use that to cover my landing. I shifted course, still staying low, using the hilly terrain to keep myself as well hidden as I could. Then with a smooth curve, using the entire ship like a wind break I slowed down, as I hit the forest and found a spot right against the road. With only a few crunched trees I felt the landing gear compress as we touched down.

"Alright." I breathed out in relief, it was the first time I've ever landed in such rough terrain.

"Hammond! We're down!" I called out, even as I slowly turned the engines to idle, and then let them power down. We'd be here for a while. It was… About twenty miles from the town up a dirt road. I headed down, sliding down the ladder into the hold where Hammond was throwing a few things onto the truck. His personal stuff. Duffel bags and the like.

"Hammond? What's all this?"

"Gotta make sure it looks like I'm traveling." He offered simply, and I relaxed as I realized that made sense.

"You've got the comm line? The Phantom should be able to pick up any messages you send even from the town."

"I've got it." He said confidently, giving me a single nod before turning. I nodded and stepped back. I wouldn't be joining him this time. For one, it was just safer to stay with the ship, and two… Well I just didn't fit in as well. Hammond in his big jacket and guns, looked like the sort of guy that'd travel through the rough terrain to this tiny little town. Instead I lowered the hold door, and watched as he took the new hauler out onto the rough brush, and then onto the dirt road before heading off.

I closed the hold for safety and headed up to the bridge. Not much for me to do besides wait. —--"What do you think?" I asked, and the Crabbit hummed as she touched the device on the end of her feet to the floor. I had gotten bored after just a few minutes of waiting, considering it could be hours before Hammond got back and decided to do some more testing.

I didn't really want to mess with the shield Crabbit idea in atmosphere, mostly because Crabbits were kind of heavy outside of zero G, so instead I was working on their in atmosphere mobility. The first idea had been to give them some upgrades to let them still hover, but honestly, their Iris Drive just didn't have the power to handle it properly, at least not without them attaching into a whole new system that would easily double their size. So I had gone back to low tech options, and came up with these.

The little wheel spun at the end of her leg as she tested forward and reverse. It was only one leg that had the module so far, mostly just to test out the connection system. So no wild driving Crabbits slamming into things.

"Hmm. Control software complete." She told me studiously, and I grinned. There was a reason I was using this Crabbit as my test bed. She was one of the calmer ones.

"Alright. Then I'll start working on some more of them. Do you want to beta test them?"

"No." She answered almost primly, and I couldn't help but smile.

"Then I'll get one of your sisters to do it. Thank you." I told her, patting the top of her casing, as I plucked the module from the bottom of her leg. I looked over the new leg she was sporting. After all, I needed some sort of power connection for the wheels to spin.

"Want me to give you your old leg back?" I asked, and instantly her leg was curled up under her body.

"No."

"Okay. You can keep it… Actually, Let's see." I reached over for my Tab, and accessed a quick bit of design work. The power plug on the leg, being left open wasn't great for it. So I'd just take the plug and… It needed something. No point in just making a cover. I scrounged around and found the perfect thing. A tiny operating light. I scanned it and combined the two pieces, and then sent the request to the Nanopaste that I had in my little store room.

It was just a small batch, enough to make the casings and parts for the wheel modules. A moment later, using some grabbers I pulled the part out, made sure all the nanopaste was off it, and then inserted the light, and held it out to her.

"What do you think?"

"It's a light." She confirmed, blandly, and I snorted.

"Yeah, but you'll need something to protect that plug in your new arm. Here." I offered it to her, and she let me slip it in. The processing light turned on, and instantly her attention shot to it. She waved her arm up and down, and the red light continued glowing.

"You can change the colors too. You'll have to figure that bit out thou-Oh you got it." The colors shifted until it landed on a green light, then it changed to Blue.

"Do you like it?"

"Yes." She offered back and then she nearly took a flying leap off the bench I was working on, only my quick grab saved her.

"Hey slow down!" I scolded her, but settled her onto the floor where she quickly scurried out of the room going full speed, the squeaking of her legs on the floor panel echoing in her wake.

"Look what I have!" She cried out, and I could instantly hear all the Crabbits that heard her perk up and start heading over. Oh no. I'd definitely just started a fad with them, didn't I? I couldn't help but just chuckle, at the excited cries through the ship. Thankfully instead of getting flooded with orders for more, my Tab beeped with a Comm message. I flailed for it, and picked it up. Hammond: Omw I blinked at the message and just snorted. Not much of a talker, but… It meant it was time to hunt pirates.

"Do a full check of our combat systems!" I called out as I headed out of the work room.

"We'll be facing pirates soon!"

"Yay!"

"We'll show them our Math!"